Repeating the last year’s dominance once again in 2023, Red Bull started the season victorious. It is really impressive to see how the team is managing to lead the grid and win the race with a one-two finish while rivals like Mercedes are still struggling to come under the top 5 contenders. Red Bull has a key tool, a unique concept to tackle with the ground floor effect regulations. And not only the RB19 car but also the drivers driving it is more than amazing. Max Verstappen is the fastest one, and Sergio Perez is the fastest second; that’s how they are making the one-two win. In the Bahrain Grand Prix, when Checo settled with a second position behind Max Verstappen, he went through a lot of experiences.
For Verstappen dominating the grid is now a matter of easy task. But for Perez, getting on the podium was really difficult. Max got no other flying like him. But Checo had his old rival, Charles Leclerc, and also a new one, Fernando Alonso. During the starting laps, Checo almost lost his second position to the Ferrari ace. And tackling the situation made him learn a lot about Ferrari. He figured out Ferrari was still a threat to Red Bull. Apparently, Checo experienced that the Monegasque driver still has the thing to win, to get defeated with as last year.
Charles Leclerc Would Have Beaten Sergio Perez, Only If He Would Not Have Hit By The Power-LESS Unit
As Sergio Perez explained, “I actually learned a lot about their car [Ferrari’s SF23]. I learned where it is weak and where it is strong or stronger than us.” When Checo said so, he perhaps kept some facts in mind. One of the facts is Ferrari’s strategy. Despite not being as strong as Red Bull, Ferrari is a threat because they are doing great on strategies. They ran just a one-time lap in the Bahrain qualifying, which allowed Leclerc to have an extra set of tyres to use on the weekend.
This was the strategy that paved the way for Charles Leclerc to become able to battle with Sergio Perez. The Ferrari driver almost overtook Checo, but unfortunately, he had to retire prematurely because of a power unit failure. Only if the unfortunate had not followed him would Leclerc have been on the podium. He would have defeated Sergio Perez as he did in 2022. In the laps that Leclerc successfully completed in the Bahrain Grand Prix, he did way better than the Red Bull driver.
Checo Explains How Leclerc Was Difficult For Him In Bahrain
Defeating the Mexican driver is Leclerc’s thing, fans know it. But fans also know that Leclerc holds a curse that sometimes prevents him from going nearest to the championship. In the first race itself, Charles Leclerc succeeded in becoming a threat to Perez and compelled him to say, “it was really difficult to get by Leclerc.”
Checo explained that Charles was on new tyres, which made a difference on that first stint which the Mexican missed out on. As soon as he was getting nearest to the Ferrair driver, he got his tyres destroyed. Being patient, Checo found his way through it. After finding a way through, he tried to drive some fast laps. On the second stint, the tyres were in better shape, and that’s how he managed to get second n the podium.
